Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I need to find a new place to live.. our landlord got the concrete saw going downstairs today... the emissions raised the CO2 levels to toxic and the alarms went off. All doors and windows open the temp quickly dropped to 10 degrees inside... good excuse to leave and go for a bike ride. Later we even had the fire dept over to test levels again. I hate moving, but looks like it's going to happen again.

On to the ride, I've been fitting in obsessive late night work sessions on this new system for a winter handlebar bag. Last year's bivy buritto worked quite well - light, super simple, tons of compression, explosive and no hardware. But had its drawbacks - too many straps & buckles, and constricting hand space at the pogies.

So this should solve most of those problems. Its still a work in progress for sure, A bigger & longer stuff sack is needed sack than my tent one along with finishing the middle wing / pocket. Then the real testing begins. It worked great though in its un-finished state, better than the old version for sure. One of the other big differences is that the pad and sleeping bag are separate.

Not much sun this time of year, gotta get it when you can...

Also on their virgin outing were a pair of RBH designs high rise socksI saw these a few weeks ago after re-visiting the RBH site and quickly ordered a pair. It basically combines the setup I was using for cold biking into one sock. I was using a smartwool liner, then integral designs VB, then a loose fitting power stretch fleece sock. The RBH sock is really nice, and the height comes up over the top of my mutant sorel liner / Neos setup. The main problems with my old setup was that the vb would bunch up, and the insulating sock would slide down when walking. So this solves all that and is more comfey. On the 3 hr ride my feet were roasting with that VB dampness, but felt really good, didnt have the plastic bag feel that you get using the integral designs VB's. Need a good cold snap again for a better test but I'm thinking they are a winner for sure, its an amazing fabric laminate.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hacking up the blogger template a bit, this feels a bit dark but will stick with it for now. The big improvement is the larger photos - yahoo.

Big day backcountry at Turnagin on Saturday - the 195 was in good form. Sensitive snowpack for sure. Dan and billy's group remotely triggered a big slide on the back side of Superbowl peak, then Late in the day with temps around zero with quickly fading light day another group skier triggered a slide on the back side of Cornbiscuit that buried a woman 6' deep in a terrain trap. Some of our group went to help out. I was already 2000' down on the complete opposite side of the mountain. She made it out due to a quick beacon search and is one lucky gal. Terrain choice and skiing on top of each other were the main culprits on the human side in that one. Glad she's ok... phew...More on that here:

Friday, December 12, 2008

High pressure, clear skies, fresh snow and a full moon, time to go.Packed up really hastily and was out the door at about 7:30 pm last night. I just wanted to get out of town and didn't care where I ended up.within 30 seconds of leaving my house I was on the bike trail, I passed 2 people and that was it. Pretty amazing you can ride out of a "downtown" area and get into the hills with only passing two other people. I like Anchorage.

Temps were in the single digits, but keeping warm was no problem grinding away with the freshly packed snow.

The moon was so bright at times it was almost startling. I never used my headlamp once...

Up the tour trail, to Rovers Run, a nice snowy singletrack.

Over to Hillside and an hour + long push up the new trails to get to Prospect heights.It was getting late at this point, close to midnight. So I found a good spot to trample down and got the stove going. I should have brought a book, that moon.. oh that moon...

Middle of the night cookie dough feeding kept me nice and warm until 10:00 this morning temp upon waking was 2 degrees.Just enough time for a well balanced breakfast - one part chocolate covered espresso beans / one part butter, peanut butter, oats chocolate chips...

You can't really see it but check out the luxury - 2 pads, my 15 year old 2+lb nice and thick thermarest and a 10mm evazote foam pad. No need to rough it on an emergency overnighter!

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

In January 2002, I packed up my bike and Flew to Santiago Chile. I had done some research about a road called "La Caraterra Austral" Also known as "El Camino Austral" - The Southern Highway. From a few photos on the internet of others biking it, I knew it would be a good adventure.

It is the only road in Southern Chile that spans the great expanse of land known as Patagonia. Starting in the coastal fishing town of Puerto Montt, it meanders 1,100 km south to its end at Villa O'Higgins. 1,100km of washboarded dirt road, traveling through lush temperate rain forest, dry plains, and back into the mountains where the wind and wet weather prevail. Further south you enter fjord country and need to take a handfull of government run ferries across gaps in the road. Further still you have spotty resupply and on average I saw about 5 vehicles a day at the southern most end.

I started further north in Temuco, in the lake district and spent some time cruising on the good roads that skirt the big strato-volcanoes near the Argentine border. It is really nice touring in through there, nice places to stay and good food. with the warm up done I left Puerto Montt in a pouring rain storm, coastal Patagonia is one place you quickly get used to being wet most of the time.

I could keep writing, I had a good write up once that I read at a slide show, but it has since been lost. It was entitled. "El Camino duro" for good reason. I did this trip at a time in my life when I felt I had allot to prove. I pushed myself hard and covered ground despite the challenges in the weather and what the road threw at me. In short, I was on a self imposed suffer-fest. Which is not to say I didnt have any fun, which I did... I think back to this trip as a major stepping stone in both my confidence and independence. I'd like to say that if I did the trip again that I would have taken more time to explore a bit more and smell the roses. However I know too well that I'd likely get in the same mode that I was in then. Its intangible. Hard roads force hard minds. Easy ones, well not so much...

Note junk-show rack setup, I planned to do allot of hiking and backpacking, so I just used compression sacks as panniers. It worked just fine and I could easily strip the gear off the bike and load it into the pack.

My hands went numb from the washboards, my tent was blown down multiple times, I cracked a rim, I rode back to back 8 hr days in the rain, the list of punches goes on, but as always there were rewards... like hiking 2 days on horse trails with my bike to El Chalten and the Torre - Fitz Roy massif's.

After 2 months I was in Puerto Natales looking for a replacement rim. My rear wheel had cracked from brake pad wear and I had to hitch a ride for a bit. With the new rim I was rolling again. Down to Punta Arenas, then flew back north for a week long ride across the Andes to Baraloche Argentina, from there it was back to Santiago and back to Colorado where I was living at the time. I came back craving some of the same raw wild expanse that traveling through Patagonia gave me. With no job and no ties, it quickly confirmed my decision to move up to Alaska. I've never looked back since.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

This blog has been boring lately, sorry.I've just been super busy trying to fit everything in.Built a new website, making good headway on orders, Skate skiing a ton! Biking a bit, making progress on strength workouts - more on that later.

We had nice new snow, but now its a melt freeze disaster.. these are the "before " photos"

Greg is also letting me try out these sweet new Ti 30 degree sweep bars - First impression = Awesome.

Also been doing some research into buying a house, so lots on my mind.

on a side note Dan got this sweet photo published in Alaska Magazine from our little Swiss trip last year:

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I finally uploaded a video to Vimeo from the Gulf coast trip.Instead of doing lots of little pieces I want to edit down a proper "trailer", but this means actually learning Final Cut Pro, so it will be a back burner - late night project for a while.

Also Jason at Salsa Cycles did a nice write up today on the Salsa Amigos Blog , A big thanks Jason, Joe, Kid & the rest of Salsa crew!

On a side note, I'm getting a new Epic website up and running which should be up by next week. I actually have a real domain and am ditching blogger, it will still be nice and simple, but be much better and easier to navigate.

It snowed a ton in town and looks like a major storm system is hitting Turnagin pass, looks the the swallowtail will be needed for carving the real post-thanksgiving turkey...

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Dylan and I headed down to Seward on Tuesday night. The presentation went well, good group of people, no technical problems, fun to talk about the trips. On the way back yesterday we stopped to stretch our legs in Girdwood by riding the winner creek, Handtram loop. I did this a few weeks before in the dark, so it was nice to do it again in the daylight and actually see everything. Conditions were great, nice and packed, could ride mostly everything.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Spent the last week working for my friend Matt at the Ascending Path. Through his guiding business & experience he's been getting more and more involved in film work that comes to Alaska that involves anything technical in the mountains. This was a documentary on a recent mountaineering tragedy. We had a wonderfully talented and skilled group of people and the whole production went off with out a hitch. Everybody pulled multiple roles ranging from acting to rigging, safety, grip, stunts etc.

It was bittersweet however since several of us, including myself, personally knew one of the climbers that perished. So although exciting and fun work, there was always an undertone of seriousness. We made every effort to "get it right" and as accurate as possible. I think we accomplished that in the filming.

Some photos:

me wishing it was colder....

Saturday was heli day, the weather cooperated and we had 2 R-44's at our disposal.